(CN) — Desperate times call for unprecedented measures, even for the courts. At an emergency meeting Saturday, California’s Judicial Council voted unanimously to delay criminal arraignments, extend timelines for criminal trials, and use technology wherever possible to help courts conduct remote proceedings as they grapple with ensuring due process while protecting public health.
The council meeting was delayed an hour by technical difficulties, adding an ironic note that was not lost on some council members.
“Our experience this morning shows us that technology is an aid, it is not always the clean simple answer we would like it to be,” said council technology committee chair Justice Marsha Slough.
Though the council had quadrupled its phone line capacity, public interest in listening in on the meeting was so great that the number of people trying to call in quickly overwhelmed and crashed the system.
“I promise we’ll get better at this,” said council Administrative Director Martin Hoshino.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye called the meeting on Thursday after cancelling the council’s regularly-scheduled business meeting so council members, many of whom are trial judges, could concentrate on dealing with problems in their own courts.
But the need for the council to step in and issue some statewide guidance quickly became apparent. Some courthouses shuttered completely while others continued to hold “essential hearings” on evictions, juvenile cases and criminal matters in crowded courtrooms.
Last week, the California District Attorneys Association sent the council’s presiding judges committee a letter asking for some consistency.
“Right now, there are inequities in California’s courthouses,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley wrote on behalf of the group. “In other words, some courts are implementing variations of emergency procedures while some courts are ‘business as usual.’"
She added, "This lack of equity and continuity in the treatment of criminal defendants and those who dedicate their lives to the administration of criminal justice raises concerns regarding equal protection under the law and now, most urgently, violates every health professional’s warning about the spread of the coronavirus.”
Her letter cited one unidentified courtroom where multiple defendants stood in close proximity to each other and their defense attorneys, in violation of strong recommendations that people stay six feet apart.
First Amendment advocates also weighed in with concerns about shuttered courtrooms and unpredictable access to telephonic hearings and court records for the press and public.
Friday night, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order allowing Cantil-Sakauye, as chair off the council, “to take any action she deems necessary” to maintain operations at any court.
“The purpose of this Order is to enhance the authority of the Judicial Council and its Chairperson to issue emergency orders; to amend or adopt rules for court administration, practice, and procedure; and to take other action to respond to the emergency caused by COVID-19,” he wrote.
Public comments flowed in ahead of Saturday’s meeting from district attorneys, public defenders and legal non-profits. Most were concerned about people losing their homes to foreclosure or being evicted from housing.
It was not an issue on Saturdays’ meeting agenda, however.
Hoshino said the council would likely take up the issue at a future emergency meeting.